Considering
that GET HARD was written and directed by Etan Cohen (one of TROPIC
THUNDER's co-writers that had a
field day lampooning movie star vanity and excess in that film), attempts at social
satire in the film are sorely lacking.

Instead, we
get a race/class relations comedy that’s decidedly low on hilarious
commentary and very, very high on nudity, bodily functions, and many jokes
and gags about prison rape, racism, and homophobia.GET HARD could have elevated itself above its one note premise –
rich hedge fund whiz is sentenced to a maximum security prison and hires
what he thinks is a black ex-con to help train him to survive the joint
– but instead emerges as something that lacks comedic edge and a
challenging handling of the material.Stars Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart (comedic performers with endless
appeal) give it their all with the rather lackluster script that they're dealt
with.

Actually,
Ferrell and Hart are the least of GET HARD’s problems.Initially at least, it’s a thrill to see these two on-screen
funnyman with differing styles play off of one another to deliver laughs.To be fair, neither performer here does anything radically
different in GET HARD that we have not seen them do before (Ferrell’s
man-child cluelessness and Hart’s rapid fire, motormouthed gusto), but
there’s no denying that they do their schtick better than anyone.For the most part, the duo are essentially unleashed in the film to
do what they can with a mostly tired and formulaic script rife with tired
scenarios and, in some instances, borderline cringe worthy moments that
deal with white stereotypes of African Americans.GET HARD didn’t overtly offend me – as it has some critics –
in its peculiar and problematic handling of using race for the purposes
of generating cheap chuckles.Yet,
there’s a difference between finding the material offensive
and...well...amusing.

The
always game and willing to do anything for a laugh Ferrell plays James,
one of those disgustingly rich zillionaires that’s made a killing in the
hedge fund racket and spares no expense at letting those beneath him
(even his maids, butlers, and groundskeepers) know how much more affluent
he is than them.He has
seemingly everything: wealth, a vast mansion, a spoiled rotten wife (a
funny Alison Brie) and a mostly charmed and stress-free life.His wife’s father (Craig T. Nelson) is also his boss, whom early
in the film promotes James to partner status at his firm.However just when things look like they can’t get any better,
James is framed and arrested for securities fraud and is sentenced to a 10
year sentences in prison.Oh,
he’s not going to one of those white-collar resort prisons…he’s
going to San Quentin.

Desperately
afraid to go to prison – and be sodomized on his first day there –
James decides that he needs to “get hard” in his 30 days leading into
his incarceration in order to prepare himself for the hell to come.Of course, because James is a stuck-up and half-witted moron, he
assumes that the only man that can help him is a black ex-con, in this
case his lowly car washer Darnell (Hart), whom he believes must have been
a criminal based primarily on his skin color.In
fact, Darnell has never once served any time for any offence, but he’s
desperate to raise $30,000 to help buy his dream home for his family so
they can move to a better neighborhood.Realizing that James could be his ticket out, the initially
offended Darnell decides to “train” James for a month…for a $30,000
fee…and essentially pretends that he was once a hard-edged ex-con with
all the answers.Darnell
then converts James' mansion to a prison-like setting and embarks on the
seemingly impossible mission of turning this wuss of a man into an
unstoppable force of nature.

Okay,
let me start off by saying that GET HARD is not a racist film, as some
have let on.It’s a film
that uses racial profiling for the purposes of comedy.James is such a bumbling buffoon that even at his dumbest he
can’t see how toxically offensive he’s being to Darnell.Darnell is not squeaky clean either, as he plays up to every broad
black stereotype he can muster for the purposes of selling his charade off
to James.Ferrell and James
do have some fun at the expense of their character’s hypocritical
standards and the film does generate a few laughs focusing on the nature
of false assumptions.Ferrell
can play a snivelling crybaby to absolute perfection, whereas Hart is good
at evoking men of outward charm and poise that are inwardly insecure.There’s no denying that the stars have chemistry and work well
together in the film.

And
yes, some gags devoted to race relations and racial profiling are
hysterical, like when James dresses up like hiphop artist to try to join a
South Central gang for the purposes of having them protect him when he’s
on the inside (they take a real liking to him when he teaches them about
stock profiles and making money by screwing people over without outright
killing them).There are also
some funny bits involving an impromptu prison riot that Darnell stages in
James' mansion that results in James accidentally having a homemade shiv
being lodged into his cranium.There’s
a scandalous scene involving Darnell taking James to a gay-friendly
outdoor restaurant for the purposes of teaching him about proper technique
for giving oral sex.The
setup of this is kind of preposterously ingenious, but Cohen lets it drag out
to unpardonable levels that will have audience members feeling more squirm
inducingly uncomfortable than anything else.

I
just wished that Cohen had a shrewder mind with the overall premise here
and milked it better for its satirical underpinnings.GET HARD is topical in the sense that it’s about wealthy
financial crooks (the most despised societal and movie villains of recent
times) stepping over the impoverished to get ahead and how in post-racial
America people still have subtle bigoted views towards people that
they’re not altogether aware of harboring.There’s some decent laughs to be had at the expense of the
cerebral battle of pitting a 99 per center like James versus a one per center
like Darnell, but GET HARD – despite thinking its cutting edge and raw
– doesn’t have the tenacity to really explore its themes of
economic/race warfare.Vulgarity
and overall lewdness does not equal comedic bravery or novelty.

I can’t
say that I didn’t laugh in GET HARD.Ferrell, to his credit, fully commits himself to outrageous setups
that, quite frankly, no other actor would probably touch with a ten-foot
pole.Kevin Hart plays
likeable buffoons in his own right with agreeable results, but he really
hasn't found the proper film to fully harness his obvious
talents.GET HARD has a
potentially killer premise with confident and invested stars at the helm
that do generate modest dosages of mischievous merriment throughout, but
Cohen’s screenplay lacks witty audacity in approaching James’
prejudicial attitudes, not to mention his overt fears of prison rape and
routine exercise yard beatings.Perhaps
if GET HARD found a healthier balance between shock humor and satirical
commentary then it might have emerged as a profound laugh riot.Instead, it feels like it’s profoundly wasting its cast and story
potential.